Secrets
by SoCherryDarling
Summary: Before she was Bela, Abby Talbot spent a year at one of the most prestigious girls schools in America. It was here that she met Sam one night, and he changed her life forever.
1. Chapter 1

A/N - tw (mostly for the next chapter) child abuse (not graphic)

* * *

Everyone kept telling her how lucky she was.

Lucky to be attending the most prestigious girls school in America, lucky to have a large beautiful home in England, lucky to have rich parents.

She didn't feel very lucky though.

Creeping through the dark halls she gasped as something warm and sinuous touched her leg.

"Oh….. Puss…!"

She bent down and picked up the cat that belonged to her house mistress, rubbing her face against his fur, smiling into his coat as he began to purr.

"You scared me." She whispered, putting him back down and tip toeing down the corridor again, the cat, tail raised, trotting along behind her.

He was good company.

Generally the cat stayed out of the corridors during the day, when they were full of chattering girls and bells ringing for classes, but at night he roamed them as freely as she did.

He reminded her of her own cat, a Siamese who was still in England, and her stomach hurt a little at the thought of just how much she missed him.

The Head mistresses office was locked, as usual, but that didn't stop her, she simply pulled out the keys she'd stolen last month and let herself in.

The cat slipped in behind her as she pressed the door shut quietly.

Sitting at the desk she picked up the phone and dialled home, waiting with her breath held through a dozen rings, in which she gripped the receiver so tight that her hand hurt

"Hello?"

"Mum?"

The sound of her Mother moving around in bed echoed down the line, a weary sigh and then the raspy click of a lighter.

She waited, listening to the sound of her inhaling then blowing smoke.

Such a familiar ritual that she could almost smell it in here.

"Darling. It's not even seven….. It must be 2am over there. Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I just….. I needed to speak with you."

There was a sigh from her Mother and she knew she had to start talking fast or she'd be fobbed off and hung up on.

"I don't want to see Dad…. At the weekend….. I don't want to see him."

"Why ever not?"

"I just don't."

"Don't be silly darling. He's driving up from Manhattan especially to take you out for the weekend. Don't be so unappreciative." _Inhale. Pause. Exhale smoke. "_I mean he's not rushing back here to see meis he! He wants to see you."

"I don't want to see him alone." She said quietly, pouring the words down the phone and hoping she would finally acknowledge it.

The silence that followed stretched to the point where she thought her Mother had hung up.

"You're not starting this silliness again are you Abby?" Her voice was ice cold, solidly contained anger.

"Mum…"

"I won't stand for it. The words that come out of your mouth are just awful. He has given you everything you ungrateful little bitch….. _Everything_….. I will _not_ listen to one more second of your vile lies."

The connection to home was severed with a click.

Shakily, Abby put the receiver back in the cradle and took a deep breath.

No tears came.

She hadn't cried for years, but she bit down hard on her lip, letting the small concentrated pain ground her.

Breathing out long and slow, she stood up, whisking the cat off the desk and hugging him to her chest till he squirmed to be put down.

She would cope.

She always did.

The move to this school was meant to be a fresh start and she'd hoped that here, she could make friends.

But that hadn't happened.

Her father had started to visit her more and more often again, now that he was working in the states for weeks instead of days at a time, and instead of the other girls finding her interesting because she was from the UK, they shunned her, giggled about her accent, declared her a snob and refused to talk to her.

So she withdrew even more, studied hard, kept out of everyone's way and then, at night, she stole about the vast building, in the dark, taking a secret thrill from her own hidden world.

Closing the door and locking it again, she made her way slowly back towards the dorms.

No point rushing now.

There was a defeated shuffle to her gait, and the cat at her heels matched if for a while before growing bored and trotting off into the dark in search of complacent mice.

A bump from behind a cupboard door make her stop.

She held her breath, worrying for a second that one of the teachers might be about, that she'd get in trouble, then deciding that she really didn't actually care anymore.

Boldly, she threw open the door to find a surprised looking boy climbing down from a shelf under the high window.

He was about the same age as her, slim with shaggy hair, dressed like someone had thrown him in the nearest thrift shop and told him to get on with it.

Over his shoulder was a large backpack.

"Are you here to steal something?" She smiled, not at all afraid of this boy who looked like he might actually cry if she shouted at him.

"Uh… no…. I just need to use the library…" He stuttered, blushing a little and pulling his bag off his shoulder to hug it in front of him.

Abby stared him down then shrugged and turned away from the cupboard. "Fine. Come on, I'll take you."

"….. What….?"

She looked behind her and frowned. "Are you coming?"

The kids looked both ways down the corridor and then trotted after her cautiously as they made their way quickly through the darkness.

"What's your name?"

"Um… Sam… Look, this is great, but why are you helping me break into the library?"

She shrugged and pulled out her keys. "Why not?"

Abby saw him smile as she opened the door and let him in. "Why you got keys?"

"Because they're useful." She chuckled, pulling the door closed and locking it from the inside. "So. Are you going to tell me what you need so badly from the library that you can't wait till it opens?"

"My Dad needs some information really quickly, like tonight quickly, and this is the best library in the area."

He turned on a small flashlight and ran his finger down the index list on the side of the first shelf as he spoke before quickly making his way down the stacks searching for the area he needed.

Abby followed him, watching the light bob and duck in the dark before her.

She found him pulling large books from the shelf.

"Here." She held out her hands. "Give me some to carry."

He smiled his thanks and handed her six dusty tomes to carry over to a small desk in the back of the library.

"This is some pretty heavy stuff….." She muttered as they lay the books down. "_Demonic omens and signs…. Cross roads lore_… What do you need these for?"

Sam glanced up at her then away quickly.

"I can't tell you." He smiled apologetically and opened up the first book.

She watched him silently for a while until she noticed him marking pages and taking notes.

"You want me to photocopy some of those for you?"

The gratitude on his face was palpable, his whole body relaxed as he realised she wasn't going to demand he tell her what was going on.

"That would actually be very cool,. Thank you."

She was happy to do it.

He was the first person who had said more than four words to her in months, and none of them had been nasty.

Besides.

She knew about the importance of secrets.

* * *

By the time it was 4am Sam was stuffing several hundred bits of paper in his bag while Abby put the books away.

"You hungry?"

He nodded then checked his watch. "No ones picking me up till six. I got finished really quickly thanks to you."

She grinned at him and unlocked the library door. "Come on. I have the keys to the kitchen."

* * *

By torchlight they sat on the floor in the big industrial kitchen, eating peanut butter from a large jar and sipping on juice.

"So you have to stay here all the time?"

She shook her head. "Just term time. Christmas and summer I go back to England. Other breaks I stay with my aunt in Maine."

He frowned a little. "Don't you miss your parents."

"No."

She held her breath but he just nodded slightly and she felt something shift a little in her chest. A kind of relief to be sat with someone who was friendly and yet asked nothing of her.

"What about you?"

"Me? My Dad moves me and my brother about a lot. For his work you know."

She wanted to ask him what sort of work he did that had him sending his son to break into a school library, but she held her tongue.

She didn't want him to close up, she just wanted to enjoy these few moments, but he stood up to go anyway.

"It was really great meeting you. Thanks for your help."

"Maybe….Maybe you could write me sometime? I don't really have many friends here… so…" She stopped and looked away, embarrassed.

But he was grinning.

"Sure, I could give you an address Dad gets his post sent to. Wait! I don't know your name!"

"Abby. Abby Talbot." She scribbled it on a scrap of paper and added the school address and he did the same.

She walked him back to the cupboard and watched him pull himself up and through the window. Climbing up behind him she watched as Sam dropped to the floor on the other side, turning to wave at her before trotting off across the misty lawn to get in to a black car waiting for him across the street.

Quickly she made her way back to her dorm room, the other girls still sound asleep, she crept under her covers and pulled the book she'd stolen from the library out from under her top.

_Cross roads Lore._

She clutched it tight and smiled to herself, wondering if she'd ever see Sam again..


	2. Chapter 2

A/N tw for bullying and implied child abuse.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

The address Sam had given her was for a Bar in Nebraska, and it was with some trepidation that she penned her first letter.

**_Dear Sam,_**

**_I hope you were able to help your Dad with the things I photocopied for you, although I'm still not sure what you were even looking for in some of those books! _**

**_Life here is pretty dull, so finding you in the cupboard was exciting to say the least!_**

**_I'm really jealous of the freedom you have, moving around, seeing new places, getting to sneak around buildings in the middle of the night (haha!), here it's just lessons and the same four walls filled with the same boring people._**

**_If you want to write back, I'd love to hear about some of the cool stuff you get up to with your Dad and brother._**

**_From_**

**_Abby._**

As she sealed the envelope she had the sinking feeling that she wouldn't hear back from him.

He was probably just being nice because he needed to get into the library.

She put a stamp on it anyway and posted it.

* * *

Towards the end of the week Abby was given a message from her Mother.

She hadn't bothered to talk to her on the phone, only left her communication with the schools admin.

_Dad can't make it, will see you next month._

Abby felt like a huge weight was lifted from her chest, and for the first time in weeks she found herself smiling, enjoying little things.

Not that any of this made her life easier. She still had to deal with the loneliness, the smirks of other girls, the whispers about her.

For the most part she could ignore it, but sometimes she'd hear someone imitating her voice, twisting it so the accent sounded over the top, and she'd glance up before she could stop herself to find a group of girls looking her way and laughing.

The heat would creep up her face as humiliation set in, she'd bite her bottom lip hard.

Abby did that a lot.

So much that it was almost permanently swollen, tiny little scabs formed where her teeth had ground against the skin.

On more than one occasion she had found her things missing, prep work ruined, something disgusting slipped onto her dinner tray.

She tried so hard not to let it get her down.

Often she wondered if it would be easier if she could talk to her parents, if she could call her Mother and cry a bit and say she was homesick and wanted to come back. But she didn't.

Her Mother was a socialite constantly running from hair appointments to charity galas in between feeding a voracious Vodka habit, and her Father… She wanted as little to do with him as possible.

* * *

"Abby Talbot?"

The secretary calling her name out surprised her, and evidently, several of the girls near her too.

She looked up from the bowl of tepid oatmeal she'd been half heartedly eating to see the secretary stood at the end of the table with a stack of letters, one of which was hers.

She never got post.

Some of the girls got several letters a week from parents, grandparents and siblings, all eager to keep in touch and remind the girl that home was waiting, but Abby only ever got post on her Birthday, usually a simple card with some cash tucked inside.

A furious whisper set up as she stood to go and fetch her letter. With shaking hands she tucked it into the pocket of her skirt and went back to her place to make an attempt to eat her breakfast quickly so she could run for some privacy before lessons started.

* * *

Hiding away in the corner of the library, Abby opened her letter.

**_Dear Abby._**

**_Lucky for me we went to the Roadhouse this quickly!_**

**_It was really cool to find your letter waiting there for me, although Dean teased me about it for ages, but I think maybe he's a bit jealous because no one ever writes to him._**

**_Just so you know, we only stop over here every few weeks or so, so if I don't write back quickly you'll know that's why!_**

**_The research you helped me with was great! Dad got just what he needed to finish the job, although we're on our way to another now._**

**_I'm kind of hoping that we get to stay a little so I can go back to school for a while. It's not that I miss school so much as learning, you know?_**

**_One day I'd love to have my own computer so I could just do my lessons like that, but until lap tops are a bit more affordable I don't think that's going to happen._**

**_Anyway, I have to go because we're leaving soon, but Ellen promised she'd mail this letter for me._**

**_I understand what you mean about not having friends so please write back, even if it's just boring stuff, it's nice to talk with someone._**

**_Sam._**

Abby pressed the letter to her chest and grinned.

_I have a friend._

_Sam Winchester is my friend._

* * *

**_Dear Sam,_**

**_Your brother sounds funny. Do you get along?_**

**_I wish I had a brother or sister, someone to confide in sometimes, but it's just me and my parents, and I don't speak to them often._**

**_I hadn't really thought about you not being able to go to school much, although I suppose it makes sense, with all the moving around._**

**_I expect laptops will get a lot cheaper one day, most things do._**

**_We have a computer room here but, to be honest, the library is so big that I hardly ever use it for school work, although I have started to learn code which is interesting. Apparently I have a flair for it, haha!_**

**_I hope your Dads job worked out ok this time. _**

**_Did you get to stay for a while?_**

**_I guess this letter might not find you very soon if you only go to the Roadhouse occasionally._**

**_It's kind of nice being able to send one though._**

**_Anyway. I have to go now! Prep in a few minutes (yawn)._**

**_Your friend_**

**_Abby._**

* * *

Abby was spending more time in the library now.

Through rain splattered windows, weak light would filter through onto the desk she would set herself up on, the books stacked neatly at her side.

She remembered each one Sam had pulled out, and of course, she still had _Cross roads lore _stashed away under her bed.

Having never given the occult much thought before, she suddenly found herself immersed in it, couldn't get enough, devouring book after book on spirits, demons, shifters.

Often she'd come back at night, to sit with her back against one of the stacks, reading by torchlight.

At first she read the books to feel closer to Sam, the one person who had smiled at her, who'd been kind enough to write to her and brighten up her usually grey existence, but after a while, she read them because they fascinated her.

She began to see patterns. There were rules.

The occult, the supernatural, there was no need to fear it if you were properly prepared, and this gave her a thrill.

Hugging one of the dusty books to her chest, se let that sink in.

Could the normal world work the same way?

Could she take control over her own destiny?

* * *

**_Dear Sam._**

**_You probably haven't got my last letter as it was only a week ago, but I wanted to write again, it passes the time!_**

**_I've been reading the books you were looking at when you came here. Some of them are really interesting._**

**_I know you don't want to say what it is your Dad does, but if it's anything to do with the things in those books then it must be really exciting!_**

**_My Dad is coming to take me away this weekend._**

**_I really wish I didn't have to go._**

**_Do you get on with your Dad?_**

**_I'd rather I never had to see mine, or my Mum. Even with the bitchy girls at school, I'd rather spend all my time here than have to be in the same room as either of them. In fact, I'd like to just make a little house for myself in the library! _**

**_Anyway, I need to go and get ready. Hopefully this visit will be short._**

**_Write soon._**

**_Your friend._**

**_Abby._**

* * *

She stood shivering in the cold air, outside the main entrance, watching his car come sweeping down the drive.

Abby fought down the panic in her chest, taking long, slow, measured breaths.

As the car stopped the driver jumped out and opened the door for her Father, who swept over to her, smiling widely, his arms outstretched.

"My little girl! I've missed you so much."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N TW for child abuse, grooming, rape (all non graphic)

* * *

**Chapter 3**

There was a time, she thought, when she had not feared her Father.

He had always been distant, not exactly hands on, his business taking him out of the country for weeks, leaving her and her Mother in England, but she could remember him hoisting her up onto his shoulders at a fireworks party when she was small, how she'd put her hands over his eyes and giggled when he pretended to drop her, but other than that he was really just this sort of background noise in her life. Someone who came home a few times a year and bought presents with him.

Her Mother was something else all together.

Even though they lived in the same house, she had had little to do with Abby since she was a baby, leaving her in the hands of nannies until she was old enough to attend boarding school, which she was packed off too at the earliest possible age.

In the September of her eighth year, she went to her first school and didn't go home again until Christmas.

Every night that term she cried herself to sleep, but it was her home she missed, her cat, her pony, her Nanny, who had been let go that summer in preparation for Abby's leaving.

She didn't even consider it odd that she didn't miss her Mother.

Mother was just this person who happened to live in the same house as she did.

Sometimes she would join her for lunch, never breakfast, she rarely rose before eleven, and even when they went on holiday she would spend her time with the nanny while her Mother did her own thing.

School only highlighted the flaws in her family and it alienated her, confused and frightened her to see girls being visited by doting parents on weekends and calling home nearly every night.

It seemed though, that when she hit about twelve, the year she grew three inches and found herself standing a head higher than her classmates, that they both suddenly started to notice her.

With her Mother this was a pain.

Whenever she came home she was bombarded with a host of criticisms.

"Stand up straight! Don't slouch! No, pull your hair _away_ from your face…. Good grief girl, are you _trying _to look unattractive?"

Abby would roll her eyes and stalk off to her room.

She was never going to be like her Mother, always made up with flawless hair, attending black tie functions every week, sometimes two or three times. She smiled and simpered and laughed, being perfectly charming with everyone around her.

Except Abby.

She treated her daughter like the worlds biggest disappointment.

Not that it mattered.

Her Father more than made up in the attention stakes.

Suddenly he was spending time with her, taking her out at weekends, buying her gifts, making her laugh.

They'd sit in a restaurant and make fun of her Mother, whispering about how she was really very wrinkly under all that make up and how the only thing that kept her looking good in those slinky dresses was industrial strength underwear.

He made her feel special for the first time in her life, acted like someone who wanted to be with her. Not someone who was obliged to be with her, or was being paid to be with her, but who actually enjoyed her company.

She couldn't remember when the fatherly touches became something more.

How many times had his hand brushed against her chest or a little too high up her leg and she'd shrugged it off.

It wasn't anything, a mistake, he hadn't meant to.

But quietly, oh, so slowly, the touches became more insistent, he'd watch her reaction while he placed his hand halfway up her skirt and when she squirmed away he'd sigh and look sad, then ignore her for the rest of their time together until she was so sorry and upset about making the only person who showed her affection unhappy, that she'd beg his forgiveness.

How many times had she lay in her dorm room after a weekend visit, her stomach churning with confusion.

So happy that he had forgiven her and would be spending time with her again soon, but also uncertain of what he had forgiven her for…. What had she done?

All she knew was that they had parted as friends again and next time, she'd try not to make him withdraw.

When he finally stared to touch Abby in ways that upset her, he changed tack.

No longer did he act like an upset friend, now he crashed down on her with the full weight of an angry Father, threatening to tell her Mother that she had led him on, flirted with him, flaunted her body until he lost control, he would tell _everyone _she knew.

Abby was terrified.

She had no one she could talk to, no friend or close relative, and bit by bit, she began to fear her Father in a way she never thought possible.

The one time she'd tried to talk to her Mother she'd been met with stony silence, her painted mouth all but disappearing as she pressed her lips together in anger.

That night, she heard them rowing over the phone and she lay very still, wide awake until morning.

_Maybe it was over._

She had hoped that would be it.

That he wouldn't ever touch her again.

Her Mother never said a word about it in the morning, so she thought that was it. Things would go back to normal.

* * *

The first week she was back at school though, he picked her up for the weekend as usual.

That night, in the house he'd rented, he raped her.

….. And there was nothing she could do.

It wasn't over, she'd realised, it was only just starting.

She was alone in all this, adrift in the world with no one to confide in, and so he continued his abuse and she continued to remain mute.

And the truly terrible thing was, it had become normal to her.

* * *

"I have a gift for you."

Her father took off his suit jacket and slung it over the back of a chair before pouring himself a drink.

Abby stood in the centre of the hotel room, watching him warily.

He turned and smiled, and for a brief moment, she felt her heart race, like he was her old Father again, the nice one who cared about her and didn't make her do things, didn't hurt her.

"Open it." He pointed to a large box on the table.

Smiling a little, she opened the package with care, frowning when she saw it was a cool box.

He motioned for her to keep going and slowly she lifted the lid.

Inside was her cat.

She screamed and jerked away as she realised he was dead.

"Was very bothersome getting him shipped from England darling. But I did it. Just for you."

Abby was sobbing now, her face buried in her hands, trying to stop the tears that fell. How long had it been since she had cried so hard? It frightened her, like she might never be able to stop.

"I had your Mother on the phone the other week. Said you were spreading lies about me again."

_Tears falling through her fingers._

"I thought we were friends you and I?"

She heard him sigh wearily. "Go sit on the bed."

Abby did.

Like the most obedient of children, she went into the next room and sat on the edge of the bed, her cheeks soaked with tears, her chest aching at the realisation of her pets death.

He could do what he wanted to her, so why kill her cat?

As he walked in, removing his tie, she glanced up at him and swallowed her fear.

She'd shut herself down.

Push all that pain and sorrow and anger into the pit of her stomach and keep it there, press down on the vile sticky mess of it until it faded away to nothing but a dull ache.

As she lay back, she knew he could do what ever he wanted and she would no longer react.

She would be the rock he beat himself upon, she would be the ocean he spat in.

What he did would make no difference anymore.

She was gone.

* * *

**Dear Sam,**

**I hope you had a good weekend.**

**Probably had a better one than I did anyway.**

**I really need to ask you something about one of the books I was reading. Can I call you? Would that be possible?**

**To be honest, I'm afraid to write it down.**

**Please write soon.**

**Abby.**


	4. Chapter 4

He hadn't seen her for weeks.

This happened sometimes, that her father would see her every couple of weekends for a while and then nothing for a month, two, three even.

If anything though, it was worse.

She felt like the condemned man, waiting for his date with the electric chair, knowing it was imminent but not _when_ it would happen.

How do you live your life with this oppressiveness hanging over you?

You don't.

She'd learned that long ago.

But when Sams letter came she felt that tiny spark of hope in her breast again, as though a little of the pain had vanished as the envelope was handed to her.

* * *

**Dear Abby.**

**I'm sorry it took me so long to write, we've only just got back to the Road house and we moved around so quickly this time, turning over each job in a couple of days, that Ellen didn't want to send them on in case they got lost.**

**Are you ok?**

**Your letters sounded kinda sad.**

**I probably shouldn't have let you look at the books I got out in the library. The truth is, if my Dad had found out you had helped he'd go nuts!**

**Maybe it's better if you call **_**me**_**.**

**My Dad left me a cell to use, so call me at 2am. Let it ring no more than four times then hang up before it goes to voice mail. If I can, I'll pick up.**

**Take care Abby.**

**Your friend.**

**Sam.**

At the bottom of the page was a cell number and she quickly committed it to memory.

She wanted no trace if this left lying about.

* * *

"Are you out of your mind?"

Sams voice hissed down the phone, but even the static and the way he had to whisper couldn't diminish the intensity in his words.

"I _know _you know more. More than the books tell me… Please Sam!"

"I can't!" The whisper sounded fearful now, she could almost imagine his eyes flicking towards the motel door or his brothers bed as he talked to her.

Abby pressed the headmistresses phone to her ear and gripped it tight, willing him to change his mind.

"Please."

"You don't understand. I don't really know that much, I just…. I just do what my Dad tells me."

"Then what's the harm?"

"I only know how to call one. I have no idea what happens after…. Or the price."

"That's for me to worry about."

"Abby."

"Do you think I would ask if it wasn't important?" She heard her voice break and bit down hard on the inside of her mouth, breathing out slowly. "I've tried everything to make this better. Everything. And no one will help me. So now I need _your_ help. Please don't say no. I don't know what I'll do if you say no."

But she did know.

On some deeper level she wasn't even ready to admit to herself, she knew exactly what she would do, because, either way, her Father wouldn't be touching her again.

There was a lengthy silence, the low hum of wires criss crossing the country.

He hadn't said where he was.

She hadn't asked.

"Summoning a demon ….. Abby…. It can't end well. Can any problem be so big that you have to do this?"

"You love your Dad, right?"

"Well… sure."

"Sam…. I…" She swallowed hard. "Look. You're just going to have to trust me on this."

With a reluctant sigh Sam filled in the gaps for her.

"The first two are easy enough, but black cat bone?"

"I can send you one…. If you like…. But please. Think about this. Ok?"

* * *

Within the week, Abby found herself standing in the dark halls, the box gripped in shaking hands.

Inside was the cat bone, graveyard dirt and a recent picture of herself.

She knew where she was going, but she had one last job to do.

* * *

"Mum. I need to ask you something."

"Are you joking? Abby its four in the morning!"

"It's important."

"Unless someone's dead nothing is four A.M important."

"If you had to choose…."

"What?"

"If you had to choose, between me and Daddy… Who would you choose?"

"This is the most absurd thing you've ever said Abigail Talbot….."

"I need an answer."

"I know you enjoy dreaming up some pretty elaborate lies but this one takes the biscuit…."

"Mother…"

"I've simply had it with you! What I wouldn't have given for your opportunities as a girl! Do you have any idea how much it costs to send you to that school!"

"Tell me!"

Her own voice startled her as much as it had her mother, and for a moment there was noting but shocked silence in her ear, then a disgusted sigh.

"Your Father. Of course."

"That's all I wanted to know." Abby said quietly, putting the phone down to drown out the sound of her Mother gearing up to spew more vitriol down the line to her only child.

She thought she'd be sad, to have it said like that, to have it out in the open.

But she only felt a calm relief.

Clutching the box tightly, she stole out of the buildings and outside into the rain.

* * *

Nothing happened.

She stood for an hour at the cross roads, but no one came.

A single sob escaped her lips, but she quashed it, and somehow, it was easier to pretend it was only the rain running down her cheeks.

* * *

The old swing set was tucked away at the far end of the hockey field, a remnant from the days when younger girls had stayed at this school.

Abby sat alone, rocking herself back and forth with her feet miserably.

She'd been so sure.

No.

She'd been so _stupid_.

What was she thinking?

That she could wave a magic wand and have all her troubles disappear?

"I'm sorry I'm late."

Abby glanced up to see a younger girl, perhaps in the year below, settling into the swing next to her with a smile.

"Late? Do I know you?"

The girls eyes flashed red for a moment and then became clear once more.

Abby took a sharp intake of breath.

"Usually one of us will come straight away when called." The demon started to swing lazily back and forth. "But you're younger than is usually accepted. Do you understand? Seventeen is usually our cut off point. Hence the twenty seven club."

With every ounce of self control, Abby turned to face the demon and smiled.

"What are your terms?"

The demon stopped and grinned happily.

"I knew you were a special one! That's why I took this case myself. The terms are, you get what ever you want and in ten years, I collect."

"Collect what?"

"My payment."

"Which is?"

"Why…. Your soul of course."

Abby nodded. She'd thought as much.

"Tell me child. What do you want?"

"I want him dead."

"… and your mother?"

"I wouldn't morn her."

"Why not ask for money?"

Abby laughed harshly. "If they're dead I'll have more than enough money for my needs."

"Smart girl. Is that all you want?"

"It's all I need."

The demon advanced towards her, placing her hands on the swings chains and leaning in. "The deal is sealed with a kiss."

As she felt the heat of the demons breath on her face Abby put a hand up to stop her.

"Wait! There's one more thing."

* * *

As the phone rang, Abby wondered again, for the thousandth time that day, if she'd done the right thing.

Too late now maybe.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Sam?"

There was a suspicious feeling hesitation from the other end of the line.

"Who is this?"

"It's Abby?"

"Um.. I think you have the wrong number."

She swallowed hard and nodded, even though he couldn't see her.

"Yes. Of course. I'm sorry."

In the background she could hear someone shouting _Who is it? _and Sams reply, _Dunno. Some English girl_. And then she hung up. Not wanting to hear any more.

The Demon had done it.

As far as Sam was concerned he had never Met Abby.

It was for the best.

She had to distance herself from anyone who knew her before.

Making her way back up to her dorm she mentally prepared herself for the phone call that must surely come.

When they were dead, she could finally be free.

Free to take command of her own destiny.

No one would ever lay claim to her mind or body again.

No one was ever going to get close enough to hurt her.

She had a lot to do.

The first of which was to find out how to get out of her ten year contract.

After the funerals though.

Of course.


End file.
